Writing about reproductive rights issues in South Dakota and beyond!
As the political arm of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, we mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexuality education
We work to inspire and engage citizens to take up the cause of reproductive health and rights through education, electoral activity, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy.

08/18/2015

Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of PPMNS Speaks Out

An organization that opposes safe and legal abortion has released several secretly recorded, heavily edited videos and made outrageous claims about Planned Parenthood’s ethics and practices. South Dakotans should reserve judgment until they get the facts.

Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls and in our region does not have, and has never had, a fetal tissue donation program. In fact, when women ask our physicians if it is possible to donate tissue for research, we have no way of accommodating them. Moreover, we have provided health services including safe and legal abortion in Sioux Falls for more than 20 years and we are inspected by the State Department of Health twice annually giving ample occasion for oversight and compliance with our policy.

However, several Planned Parenthood organizations around the country do have these programs in place so patients can opt to donate fetal tissue for medical research. Such research is a crucial aspect of scientific inquiry and is important to improving health care. Stem cell research and other tissue research have led to major scientific and medical breakthroughs such as advances in treatment for Parkinson’s and the invention of the polio vaccine. These donation programs are regulated and legal — and they exist in many hospitals and clinics not associated with Planned Parenthood.

The recent smear campaign is part of a decade-long pattern of illegal harassment by extremists whose focus is banning abortion and preventing women from accessing preventive health care at Planned Parenthood health centers across the country. Already, politicians have begun to use this fraud campaign to justify legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, which would cut women off from birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, and other services, and to push for legislation banning abortion federally and in states.

The well-funded anti-abortion group that released these videos worked for years to secretly record videos and edit them in completely misleading ways, all with one goal — to ban abortion completely and malign Planned Parenthood. Even a cursory look at the people behind this attack exposes them for the disreputable group they are. David Daledian, the group’s leader, is a former employee of Live Action — a discredited anti-abortion organization that came under fire for deceptively editing undercover footage of abortion clinics in order to make false claims about Planned Parenthood. Troy Newman, Daledian’s board member and advisor, is best known for his belief that murdering abortion doctors is justifiable homicide.

While Planned Parenthood in our region does not have a tissue donation program, we stand behind our colleagues around the country who help women and families donate tissue for medical research when they wish to. The American public stands with us, too. A recent poll shows that voters overwhelmingly disagree with Republicans who say there should be an immediate vote to end all government funding for Planned Parenthood in light of the undercover videos.

Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our patients. The women and men who come to Planned Parenthood don’t come to make a political statement — they come because they need quality, compassionate health care.

MY VOICE

Sarah Stoesz lives and works in St. Paul, Minn. She oversees the Planned Parenthood Sioux Falls Clinic and is the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. My Voice columns should be 500 to 700 words. Submissions should include a portrait-type photograph of the author. Authors also should include their full name, age, occupation and relevant organizational memberships.

The Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund is the political arm of PPMNS. We mobilize supporters of all parties to defend and increase access to family planning services and fact based, medically accurate sexual education. Read more.